JUST WHEN YOU THINK DONALD TRUMP HAS HIT BOTTOM….
Mitt actually doesn’t think the president has hit bottom….
I am often asked why I don’t devote every edition of Wide World of News to writing about what a bad person and a bad president Donald Trump is.
That is a complicated question with answers that are both even more complicated and quite numerous.
Check out my forthcoming memoir, “Examined Life,” available now for pre-order on Amazon and on-sale January 5, for two full chapters addressing those matters.
For those longing for such coverage now, here you go.
The country is under ongoing, relentless, unprecedented, and grave attack from a ruthless enemy over whom the United States has had almost no leverage in years; Congress has failed to respond to a horrifying pandemic which continues to rage out of control; tens of millions of Americans fervently believe, without evidence, that Joe Biden was fraudulently and falsely declared the winner of our recent election; and there is deep bipartisan distrust in elites.
What is the incumbent president of the United States doing about that compendium of nightmares?
Making them all worse out of an all-too-familiar combination of vanity, laziness, self-interest, ignorance, recklessness, and lack of concern for the Constitution, his oath of office, and human decency.
That indicting proposition would win majority support in a secret ballot among Senate Republicans and more than a few votes in such a tally among even House Republicans.
And, hold on tight, because Donald Trump is about to make matters even worser, with special interest giveaways (that will harm the environment, among other things), unjustified/unvetted pardons, more extreme demands about overturning the election results, and untethered-for-reality schemes for closing days actions that even those around him in his above-ground bunker will see as bridges which would have to extend from Seattle to Stockholm (which is to say: far too far).
As the reporting and developments of the last 24 hours suggests, we are about to be asked to endure an extended deluge of presidential tweeting after dark, audacious corporate and personal favors, breathtaking leaks, gobsmacked blind quotes, and warnings from inside the Trump inner circle that they have never seen this long-unhinged man so unhinged.
As the New York Times writes with rare understatement regarding Mr. Trump:
Mr. Trump has shown no interest in shaping the debates that lay ahead for Republicans, in tending to the party’s electoral health or in becoming a champion of America’s recovery. Rather, he seems intent on using his political platform to wage personal vendettas and stoke a shared sense of grievance with the voters he has long cultivated as a fan base.
The president reportedly discussed declaring martial law (inspired by election expert Michael Flynn), the federal seizing of voting machines (inspired by election expert Rudy Giuliani), and installing Sidney Powell as some sort of deputized special counsel (inspired by election expert Sidney Powell).
These Oval Office considerations are among the very worst and most dangerous musings of President Donald Trump in his nearly four years in office, and that is saying quite something.
The fact that he is doing this devilish fiddling while American burns with a pandemic and is under an attack from Russia is both unconscionable and a ghoulishly fitting coda for a dark chapter for our country and its public soul.
It has come to this: the sanctity of our democratic institutions and our chances of continuing to keep our Republic depend on the sober judgment and capacity for valiant action of Mark Meadows and Ken Cuccinelli.
Do you want to be fully chilled?
Consider: There is no clear prospect that any of this behavior will give the 74 million Trump voters pause about their decision to back four more years (let alone doubts about their baseless suspicions about massive voter fraud -- or about their overlooking everything else above, including more of years-long inexplicable verbal coddling of Putin).
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If you haven’t read them yet, here are the New York Times, Politico, and Washington Post stories on the chaos, concern, and consternation inside Trump World, complete with breathless aides saying privately what history and honor should compel them to declare publicly – they have never been as worried about the instability and irresponsibility of this president as they are right now.
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If you believe the president’s Saturday tweets, including some of the late-night ones:
A. He never discussed martial law.
B. China might be the hacking culprit, not Vladdy – and it ain’t that big a deal in any case.
C. He might want to blow up the current pandemic relief talks with a desire for bigger direct payments.
D. The election was stolen from him.
All outrageous but I will go with a tie between (B) and (D) for the most outrageous, but/and the weekend is young.
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To believe that the announcement of a Senate leadership deal on Pat Toomey’s Federal Reserve provision means that there will soon be a pandemic relief bill signed into law, you have to believe the following things:
1. That there will be no Lucifer in the details as the Toomey language is codified and finalized Sunday morning.
2. That both parties can live with the other side’s claiming victory on the Toomey compromise.
3. That Team Pelosi doesn’t jam in so many new provisions that the price tag rises above the magical (to Senate Republicans) $1 trillion tripwire mark.
4. That the other pending issues which were indeed “minor” compared to the Toomey item in fact become major as the focus shifts there. This list includes but is not limited to, per the Washington Post:
[E]ligibility for small-business relief; how to structure unemployment aid; and the criteria for sending out a $600-per-person stimulus check. Pelosi told House Democrats during a call on Saturday that lawmakers remained divided over the amount of money necessary for food assistance, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the speaker’s private remarks.
[Editor’s note: that is ONE person’s list!]
5. That no Senator objects to proceeding for one reason or another.
6. That there is no rank-and-file breakaway revolt after they peruse the items that will inevitably be tucked into the giant, rushed-through package (which will surely include lobbyist-generated goodies for wealthy special interests as well as midnight-basketball-style lefty provisions).
7. That Congress acts more expeditiously than the latest-occurring deadline that has been floated (which in this case is 12/31/20).
8. That Trump doesn’t torpedo the whole thing with some eleventh-hour-fifty-nine-minute desire to put his imprint on the package.
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On the Russian hack, which continues to be universally described as the most damaging ever (and ongoing):
A. Two important Washington Post paragraphs:
Trump’s aversion to calling out the Kremlin for its malign activities in cyberspace and his deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin has become a hallmark of his presidency. He has repeatedly trusted the word of Putin over the assessments of his own intelligence community, including its conclusion that Russia waged a sophisticated campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election — a verdict Trump believes calls into question the legitimacy of his victory four years ago.
His tweets Saturday raise fresh concerns that he will seek to shrug off what may turn out to be a cyber hack of unprecedented scale, and that Russia will not be held to account. The president has complained to advisers, who believe Russia is culpable, that the intrusions are a fake narrative meant to damage him politically.
B. Two important New York Times paragraphs:
Privately, the president has called the hack a “hoax” and pressured associates to downplay its significance and push alternate theories for who is responsible, two people familiar with the exchanges said. Larry Kudlow, his economic adviser, told reporters on Friday, “People are saying Russia. I don’t know that. It could be other countries.”
The president’s unexplained reluctance to blame Russia — which through its embassy in Washington has denied complicity in the attack — has only complicated the response, investigators say.
C. And/but three most important additional New York Times paragraphs:
But if history is any guide, finding the right way to retaliate will be difficult. The United States conducts its own spying missions. America has carried out supply chain attacks, too, including against Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and its missile program. It has been running them against North Korea for years.
“The U.S. government has no principled basis to complain about the Russia hack, much less retaliate for it with military means, since the U.S. government hacks foreign government networks on a huge scale every day,” Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who worked in the Bush administration.
“Indeed, a military response to the Russian hack would violate international law.” he added. “The United States does have options, but none are terribly attractive.”
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Essential reading: Paul Kane on how the four congressional leaders have relationships that range from horrible to really horrible – with no obvious prospect for Biden-era improvement.
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Essential reading: This Associated Press piece that captures just how bad the pandemic is in California right now, from the chilling (hospitals are being forced to ration care) to the symbolic and substantively resonant (Apple is temporarily shuttering all its Golden State stores during Christmas week).
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On Georgia, one more afterhours Trump tweet:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution puts the expected visit nicely in context.
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